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Republic of the Philippines

CONGRESS OF THE PHILIPPINES
Metro Manila
Third Regular Session
Begun and held in Metro Manila on Monday, the twenty-fourth day of July, nineteen hundred and
eighty nine.

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6849

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE INSTALLATION, OPERATION, AND MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC TELEPHONES IN
EACH AND EVERY MUNICIPALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:

SECTION 1. Title. - This act shall be known as the "Municipal Telephone Act of 2000."

SECTION 2. Declaration of National Day Policy. - Recognizing that the benefits of modern
communication technology are as important to rural development as they are to urban areas,
the State shall pursue and foster, in an orderly, purposive and vigorous manner, the
interconnection of all municipalities in the country through the establishment and early
realization of a nationwide network of public calling stations.

SECTION 3. Projects Office. - For purposes of administering the provisions of this Act, there
is hereby created a Municipal Telephone Projects Office in the Department of Transportation
and Communications (DOTC) with the following functions:

(a) Develop, in coordination with all other agencies concerned, a plan for providing public
calling stations with technology capable of voice and data transmission in every municipality
and, when feasible, in such barangay not otherwise served by an existing telephone exchange
using appropriate technology and for this purpose formulate or cause to be formulated,
engineering studies;

(b) Undertake the implementation of the said plans and programs and toward this end, to enter
into contracts subject to existing laws and regulations for the procurement of equipment,
construction of facilities and the installation of the system;

(c) Arrange for funding form any source, private, government, foreign or domestic, including
official development assistance, bilateral and multilateral loans subject to applicable laws
and regulations;

(c) Prescribe and ensure compatibility with minimum standards and regulations to assure
acceptable standards of construction, maintenance, operation,

(d) personnel training, accounting and fiscal practices for the municipal telecommunications
operators of public calling stations;
(e) Furnish technical assistance and personnel training programs for the municipal
telecommunications operators of public calling stations;

(f) Monitor and evaluate local telecommunications and effect system integration and operations
whenever economically and technically feasible. Provided, however, That the approval of the
provincial government of the province where any or all of the functions above mentioned are
to be discharge is first secured.

SECTION 4. Management of the Projects Office. - A projects Director, who shall be a person
of integrity, competence and experience in technical fields related to the purposes of this
Act, shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines upon the recommendation of the
Secretary of Transportation and Communications. He shall have the rank, position and emoluments
of an undersecretary.

The Projects Director shall have the following powers and duties;
(a) To execute and administer the plans and projects for the realization of the policy set
forth in this Act;

(b) To direct and supervise the operation and internal administration of the Projects Office
and, for this purpose, to delegate some or any of his powers and duties to appropriate
subordinate officials;

(c) Subject to the guidelines and policies established by the Secretary of Transportation and
Communications, to appoint and in coordination with the Department of Budget and Management
fix the number and compensation of officials and employees of the Projects Office, subject
to Civil Service Law;

(d) To prepare an annual report on the activities of the Projects Office on or before the end
of the first quarter after the fiscal year completed and to submit a copy thereof to the
President of the Philippines and the Congress of the Philippines; and

(e) To exercise such other powers and duties that are proper or necessary to carry out the
purposes of this Act as may be vested in him by the Secretary of Transportation and
Communications.

SECTION 5. Rights of First Option. - All domestic telecommunications carriers or utilities

existing at the time of the affectivity of this Act, and franchised to service a province or
region WHICH shall have been certified by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)
as rendering satisfactory and competent service in its area of operation, are hereby given,
under equal conditions and circumstances, the first option to provide, install and operate
public calling stations or telephones in provincial communications network which shall be
capable of voice and data transmission and shall be interconnected to the public switched
telephone network or other national transmission facilities. The intention to exercise the
option shall be made specifically in writing to the Projects Office within six (6) months of
the affectivity of this shall indicate the preferred province and the time frame of development.
Private operators or franchisees of such public calling stations shall be entitled to the same
benefits and privileges enjoyed by those installed and operated by Government in so far as
tax concessions and/or incentives are concerned.

SECTION 6. Frequency Allocation. - In order to accelerate the implementation of this project,

National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) is authorized to assign or reassign, when
necessary, existing radio frequency users currently operating.

SECTION 7. Rates and Mandatory Sharing of Toll Revenue. - The NTC, subject to its standard
guidelines and in consultation with the regional development councils concerned, shall fix
an equitable, reasonable and uniform rate of charges for every type of call. A rate schedule
shall be set for all municipal telephone calls under the following classifications:

(a) Municipal to International;

(b) Municipal to Metro Manila, and other domestic long distance calls;

(c) Municipal to Provincial Capital;

(d) Municipal to Municipal;

(1) of the same province
(2) of difference provinces, other than domestic long distance.

In connection with the rates, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), in

consultation with the toll network operators or interchange carriers and the provincial
government concerned, shall authorize and cause the implementation of an equitable toll revenue
sharing and collection scheme. The share of the local exchange operators in toll revenues shall
be remitted by the interchange carries to them within ninety days (90) form receipt.

SECTION 8. Timetable of Implementation. - The Projects Office shall install all public calling
stations for provinces and municipalities not covered by private communication utilities under
Section 5 hereof, such that each one of the municipalities in the Philippines still unserved
by telephone at the affectivity of this Act, shall have at least one (1) public calling station
or public telephone by the third year of effectively of this Act. Where resources permit, the
Projects Office shall also extend the services concurrently or subsequently to other remote
barangays of the country. The public calling stations shall be interconnected to the public
switched telephone network or other national transmission facilities, subject to the technical
interconnection standards prescribed by the NTC.

SECTION 9. Operation by Local Governments. - Provinces and municipalities are hereby authorized
to set up, operate and maintain their respective public calling stations or to grant franchise
to private entities for the operation and maintenance of telephone systems and/or public
calling stations: Provided, That the NTC certifies that the proposed grantee is technically
and financially capable of complying with all the requirements of public services.

SECTION 10. Appropriation. - The amount of two hundred million pesos (P200,000,000.00), or
so much thereof as may be necessary to implement the provisions of this Act, shall be taken
from the appropriations provided under Title 1 - Telecommunications of Executive Order No.
182. In addition, the sum of three hundred million pesos (P300,000,000.00), or so much thereof
in equivalent foreign currencies as may be necessary, shall be source, in their order of
preference, from foreign grants, concessional loans, official development assistance,
commercial loans, and/or export credits to meet the objective of this Act.

SECTION 11. Official Development Assistance. - The provisions of Executive Order No. 230 of
1986, on the power of the NEDA Board, and the rules and regulations governing the evaluation
and authorization for the availment of Official Development Assistance notwithstanding, the
municipal telephone program provided for in this Act shall be eligible for foreign loans and
grants without further evaluation by the NEDA Board, subject to Section 21, Article XII of
the Constitution.

TRANSITORY PROVISIONS
SECTION 12. Sunset Clause. - The projects Office shall not have a life exceeding ten (10) years
from the d ate of the approval of this Act and may only be extended by act of Congress. At
the options of the provincial government, the systems operating in each province shall be turned
over to it, except those operating under Section 5 thereof.

SECTION 13. Separability of Provisions. - Any portion or provisions of this Act that may be
declared unconstitutional or invalid shall not have the effect of nullifying other portions
and provisions hereof as long as such remaining portions or provisions can still subsist and
be given effect in their entirety.

SECTION 14. Repealing Clause. - All acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are repealed
or modified accordingly.

SECTION 15. Effectivity. - This act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication
in at least two (2) national newspapers of general circulation.
APPROVED,

(SGD.) RAMON V. MITRA

Speaker of the House of Representatives
(Sgd.) JOVITO R. SALONGA
President of the Senate
This Act which is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 892 and House Bill No. 3452 was finally
passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on December 20, 1989 and December 21,
1989 respectively.
(Sgd.) QUIRINO D. ABAD SANTOS, JR.
Secretary of the House of Representatives
(Sgd.) EDWIN P. ACOBA
Approved: February 8, 1990
Secretary of the Senate
(Sgd.) CORAZON C. AQUINO
President of the Philippines